Several hundred visitors turned out for the opening of the Bronx Museum’s Seventh AIM Biennial on Jan. 23, which showcased 28 rising local artists and was named a must-see art show by Gothamist and Observer.
Those featured represented the two most recent cohorts from the Bronx Museum’s AIM (formerly called Artist in the Marketplace) program, a prestigious yearlong professional development fellowship for New York City-based artists.
Organized around the theme “Forms of Connection,” the show featured a wide range of works, including painting, textile, tapestry, video, installation and sculpture, all by working artists not represented by galleries.
The lively opening celebration fully took over the museum space, with a DJ on the top floor and works shown throughout the two main levels.
Delvin Lugo of the 2024 AIM fellowship cohort showed a piece in the center of the room that was impossible to miss. “Country to City/Town to City” is a wooden table covered by a lace-edged vintage tablecloth, which Lugo painted with self-portraits and four of the places he has called home.
The paintings depict Lugo’s family roots in the small mountain town of Monción, Dominican Republic; his previous Williamsburg apartment building nestled into McCarren Park; a family house in Rhode Island, where he spent the COVID pandemic years; and his current East Village apartment building. Self-portraits at each corner of the tablecloth depict Lugo at different ages, which he said reflect growth and progress over four decades of life.
Lugo said the work fits within themes of chosen family and belonging in the queer community, as well as a love for natural spaces, which he paints in eye-catching colors. Leaves and grass are muted greens, but tree trunks are lavender and the backgrounds are bright Caribbean pink and green.
“No matter where I move to, nature is usually really where I feel at home, so I wanted to have that as a connecting design throughout it,” he said.
Lugo said he works frequently with home linens, such as pillowcases, table runners and tablecloths, but this was his first piece that did not hang on a wall. He credited the AIM fellowship for the idea. “This program inspired me to push myself and also, like, go beyond my comfortable level.”
At the same time, by painting onto “nostalgic” materials, Lugo said the heart of his work will be familiar to anyone.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the Dominican Republic, Asia or the United States,” he said. “All these homes have doilies and all these woven and made materials.”
The art of surveillance
Bryan Fernández showed a large work titled “Beso à la Cámara” (“Kiss to the Camera”), created in 2024, which he said offered a commentary on public surveillance in the United States and the Dominican Republic.
The work hangs near the museum entrance and depicts an MTA bus traveling along a city street, with people standing on the side. Plugged into the work are four small cameras, which — probably unbeknownst to most — were live streaming to a small screen at the front desk.
Fernández said the work is meant to “mimic what’s going on out in the streets,” where police and security surveillance permeate everyday life. “I knew I wanted to make something really, deeply touching New York. Especially where I’m from, Washington Heights,” he said.
“Beso à la Camera” is also his largest piece to date, which allowed him to “let go of the brush to depict the scenes that I make.”
“I don’t have to be restricted by a studio space, by even my own imagination. I can just be free to expand,” Fernández said.
In addition to being a working artist, Fernández is also a first-year student in Yale University’s MFA program, which he said has been “transformative” for his practice. “It’s making me really rethink the language I use to describe my practice, why I do the things I do.”
Fernández said he is excited for the year ahead as he prepares for his debut NYC solo show and first institutional solo show, opening March 17 at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn.
Overall, he said the past year has been marked by growth and a greater understanding of his consciousness, which feeds the work, imbued with intention and a deeply rooted sense of place.
Whether consciously or unconsciously, “There’s something coming out that is still connected to theory, to the Caribbean, to the Dominican Republic, to New York City, so on and so forth.”
The Seventh AIM Biennial is on view at the Bronx Museum through June 29, and admission is always free.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
